All Known Mossad Numbers Stations Abruptly Disappear

This is from the beginning of the month, but I haven't found any threads on it.

Our good friend Ary Boender is reporting on the UDXF newsgroup that after about 45 years, the well known Israeli Mossad numbers (Enigma E10) transmissions have disappeared from the HF spectrum. The stations have been silent since March 1st. Callsigns include YHF, CIO, VLB, etc.

According to the March 2011 E2K newsletter the night of Feb 28-Mar 1 was the last time a E10 transmission was logged. Despite intensive monitoring of all the current and previous known frequencies since, nothing has been heard...
mt-shortwave.blogspot.com...

Since they're obviously still talking to their people in the field, what have they been using since the first of March? Also, can any shortwave folks confirm that this is still accurate?

Wow this is not a good sign cause they know everyone is spying on them and they don't want to have Russia go tell their buds who is coming when. Israeli Mossad is to smart for most and probably uses the least likely thought about way to communicate.

reply to post by Sky watcher


Or the most obvious way as to make us think not to look there.

Surly the Mossad has been using these old frequencies as disinformation. Give codes meant to be broken in order to sway the intelligence of the enemy. Now it seems they either disbanded and are non-existent, or they are trying new more valuable tactics against their enemies.

reply to post by sepermeru

Once they go digital, they can use encryption. I am uncertain if anyone can break the encryption. If they don't want to be heard, they won't be heard. If you get caught with code breaking software, you are probably in trouble. Radio is becoming quite sophisticated.

hmmm...now lets try and see what launches were performed prior to the date so wonderfully posted ...

ZULU...BRAVO...ALPHA

The mission is GO

I repeat the mission is GO

Switch communications to alt vZ319sUpErMoOn777

reply to post by starless and bible black


Numbers stations are always encrypted, in the oldest and most secure way -- they're based on one-time pads, so they cannot be cracked by anyone but the spy. That's why they're broadcast where anyone can listen. It's more important that the signal can reach agents who may be anywhere than that nobody hears the useless coded information being broadcast. It's been over 45 years and nobody has ever cracked a numbers station code that wasn't re-using a one-time pad (and hence breaking their own encryption). It's actually MUCH less secure to try to digitally encode the information and send it out digitally encrypted. As you say, there's absolutely ways to make it uncrackable, but in order to open it then the agent needs access to a lot of tools which are often not available in the field.

There are many, many ways to hide and encrypt radio communications. The first thing that came to my mind was that they could be using that encryption that basically just skips around the radio bandwidth in random frequencies. If I could remember what it was called, that would be cool. Maybe somebody knows and knows more?

Not so much what they're doing, though, but why?

reply to post by nithaiah


Hmm, that skipping around idea sounds like it also would violate one of the basic rules for a numbers station. They're not meant for the signal to be hidden -- quite the opposite. The signal must be very strong with high fidelity and the ability to broadcast potentially into very remote places. Numbers stations signals are so strong they have a long history of causing interference or lockouts for other broadcasters. So I'm sure that they definitely haven't switched to anything hidden or hard to get, because that would defeat the purpose. It would be something right out in the open that didn't look meaningful to anyone but the target for which it was intended.

This was my first thread here, three years ago. I still think it is one of the best genuine mysteries I've happened upon.

Thinking of it again due to recent events, I set out to research whether there have been any updates or explanations. Instead, I find that searching just leads to lots of old recordings and info but nothing since the end of transmissions in 2011. The numbers stations wiki contains references to the old E10 (Enigma-10) stations Mossad ran with no mention of the disruption. This page:

www.priyom.org...

explains the technical details of E10, and confirms it was last heard in March 2011. I have yet to find any discussion of new Mossad broadcasts or explanation of what tech they might be using now. The message board mentioned in the original link (which is still working) is a Yahoo mailing list, so I'll sign up and see if answers lurk there. But I have a feeling I'm not going to find anything out.

They have something new and better. They must. Everyone else, as far as I know -- looking into this as well -- is still using numbers stations because they fit the needs of diplomacy and espionage so well. One-time pads can't be broken, so there's no reason to conceal the stream, as the content is fully encrypted. Radio waves can go places it's otherwise impossible to reach. They have been in constant use for decades, non-stop, by all global powers and all connected rebels and many crime organizations.

"In its golden age E10 followed consistent schedules, almost 24/7 transmissions. Its transmissions could be heard worldwide."

And then, in 2011, it just...disappeared. I might be wrong, but as far as I can tell now, either Mossad quit the spy game to spend more time with its family, or nobody knows what they switched to using instead.